Richard A. Gardner

Richard Alan Gardner (April 28, 1931 – May 25, 2003) was an American psychiatrist known for researching parental alienation syndrome (PAS), widely understood to describe when parents with children divorce, one parent (usually the custodial parent) purposely alienates the child or children from the non-custodial parent. According to Gardner's early research, and later corroborated by others, the alienating parent attempts to damage or sever the child's relationship with the non-custodial parent. Gardner researched the PAS phenomenon through personal observation in his private practice to explain what he considered to be an epidemic of false accusations of child sexual abuse. In addition to his practice, Gardner held a fully credentialed position as a clinical professor of psychiatry in Columbia University's division of child and adolescent psychiatry. Over the course of his career he published more than 40 books and 250 articles in a variety of areas of child psychiatry and operated a company, Creative Therapeutics, Inc., that marketed materials based on his theories. Gardner testified as an expert witness in many of custody cases in the USA. Gardner committed suicide in 2003.